AP Top 25 Polls Highlight Top 100 All-time in College Hoops
(AP) — The Associated Press college basketball poll started in 1949 with Saint Louis on top. Sixty-eight years later, the poll has ranked a total of 200 schools through more than 1,100 polls. A total of 59 schools have been ranked No. 1.
Now, for the first time, the AP is using that data to go past the Top 25 of the moment and determine the top 100 programs of all-time.
The teams at the top are a who's who of college basketball royalty. Starting with Kentucky, the all-time No. 1 with appearances in 75.4 percent of all polls and 124 No. 1 rankings.
The next top teams are North Carolina, Duke and UCLA, the only schools to be ranked at the top for more than 100 weeks.
Kansas, Indiana, Louisville, Arizona, Syracuse and Cincinnati round out a top 10 that includes only schools that have won national championships.
UCLA has been the most frequent No. 1 in the AP ranking with 134 appearances at the top. That's mostly thanks to coach John Wooden's unmatched dynasty on the 1960s and '70s. Next come Duke (129), Kentucky (124), North Carolina (110) and Kansas (65).